Poig-nant

I treasure the moment when a podcast host realizes on-air that they’ve been pronouncing a word differently from everyone else. Just got poignant as “poig-nant”.

Is there a name for that type of realization? It happens to and around me a lot. Does this only happen in English?

Mastodon replies from @RadRat on 25 Nov 2025.

@beandreams In response to Q1, I have never heard a term for that, but as a person who spends a lot of time mispronouncing words I have only read and not hear out loud, I would very much like there to be one.

@beandreams May I propose 'a readerism'? Like a malapropism or spoonerism. A mispronunciation that comes of being a reader.

@beandreams Crucially, 'readerism' will be pronounced "red-erism" but we won't tell anyone that until it's too late.